by Kurt Zindulka
Mass migration could become the “dissolving force” that destroys the European Union, the bloc’s top diplomat admitted amid thousands of illegal migrants landing on Italian shores and internal disputes between member states over the relocation of migrants.
Speaking to the left-wing Guardian newspaper in Britain, the EU’s High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell warned that cultural differences on what to do about Europe’s continued migrant crisis could ultimately break up the bloc entirely.
Dismissing the impacts of Brexit — in which the British public decided to leave the EU mostly over arguments surrounding migration — the Spaniard said: “Migration is a bigger divide for the European Union. And it could be a dissolving force for the European Union.”
The former Spanish foreign minister claimed that the reason why the EU has been unable to come to a broadly accepted common policy on immigration was due to cultural differences, saying that while countries such as his left-leaning homeland have a history of encouraging immigration, others have a “Japanese-style” mindset.
“There are some members of the European Union that are Japanese-style – we don’t want to mix. We don’t want migrants. We don’t want to accept people from outside. We want our purity,” Borrell said.